You are overwhelmed at home? I know the feeling, too. Staring around my house and feeling the heavy weight of dissatisfaction. This room doesn’t look the way I want it to. The wallpaper is hideous, but it’s such a big project to fix it. There’s crap everywhere that belongs somewhere else, a sink full of dishes with nowhere to go because the dishwasher is full of dishes, too. A pile of laundry by the door and cat hair on the couch. I broke down and bought that damn junk food again, because it’s quick and tastes good and I don’t have time to make something healthier. Even if I did, the spatula I need is dirty and the oven is going to stink if I turn it on, because last night’s dinner overflowed and I haven’t had time to clean it yet. Sigh.
I don’t to dwell too long on this picture I’ve painted, that’s not the point of this post. I simply want to tell you, I’ve been there too.
But.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here:
Homemaking shouldn’t suck.
We often feel that it does, of course. Rosy Blu in fact has evolved out of a dissatisfaction with what I have found to be the wrong way of approaching homemaking–too much stuff, too many chores, and not enough time . . . coupled with a dash of unrealistic expectations via our darling friend Pinterest and the lovely Martha Stewart, among others.
But now that we are on the same page, I want to step back and turn our collective attention to the miracle of modern day homemaking.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by managing your home, on top of the rest of your life, consider this:
- We have machines to wash our clothes and our dishes. This simple fact saves at least a day and a half per week of manual labor.
- We have the ability to keep food fresh for days (in the fridge) or months (in the freezer) without spoiling. We can basically store a customized mini market stocked with goodness under our own roof at all times.
- We have vacuum cleaners to suck dust and dirt and hair and bugs from our carpets, rugs and floors.
- And heating our homes generally doesn’t require smoking up the house. We just need to mail in a check every month.
- We don’t have to take our life into our hands to cook dinner. I have a recipe book from 1880 that instructs me to cook food in the fire. Women used to have to walk into their ovens, with fires on the floor, and risk having their skirts catch fire. Not to mention, it was, uh, pretty hot in there, and no AC.
- Need some milk? You don’t have to raise a cow, just run to the convenience store half a mile down the road.
- You can choose to have a garden. . .or you can have a box of fresh produce delivered every week instead.
- You can pick up the phone and have a hot dinner at your door 30 minutes later.
- Your day can stretch as far into the night as you want it to, thanks to the magic of electricity and lights.
- Sewing and knitting and canning are hobbies we do for fun, not for survival.
- If you want to know how to do something you’ve never done, you can find expert advice in seconds with a simple search. Literally, anything.
- Breadmakers. Mixers. Blenders. Griddles. Toaster ovens. There is a tool for every task we could dream up, and it’s been engineered to lighten your load if you let it.
You could look everything around you and feel you have too much to do, and it’s too hard, and you are sinking beneath it.
Or you might surprise yourself. You could seize the tools at your disposal, and take command of your own personal army of robot helper elves to do your bidding, and appreciate how they free up your time for bigger and better things.
Rather than lamenting your long list of things to do and places to be and people to please, you can claim your domestic goddess throne with grace, fulfill the tasks that excite you, and deftly accomplish other necessities (made simple by modern conveniences) with time and energy to spare.
You don’t have too much, darling. You have choices unlike women have ever had before. The responsibility feels heavy sometimes, but breathe, and find the light, and relax. While we might see it as overwhelming on the one hand, it can also be uplifting. Inspiring. Expressive and liberating. I can choose to have (or, just as importantly, to not have) anything I want.
Homemaking has never been better, wouldn’t you agree?
